Walter Bochow

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Walter Bochow (born September 9, 1889 in Leipzig , † probably between January and March 1946 in Inta am Eismeer, Soviet Union ) was a German journalist.

Life

Activity as a journalist and writer

Bochow lived as a journalist in Berlin from the 1920s. In 1924 he married the journalist and translator Hansi Blüthgen .

He was a member of the Association of German Writers and the Reich Association of German Writers . In 1931 his novel Hansgeorg inherits a miracle appeared in four editions.

Work for von Papen (1932 to 1934)

From 1932 Bochow worked in the political secretariat of the politician Franz von Papen , of whom he nevertheless had little opinion. From 1933 Bochow worked in the office of the Deputy Chancellor , who was headed by Papen as deputy head of the Hitler government, which was formed in January 1933 . Since it can be proven that he was active as an undercover agent in the service of the SS security service (SD) at the latest in 1938 , the literature sometimes suggests that he was already in the service of the party secret service in 1934. In this case, he could have supplied the SS with internal information from Papen's surroundings and, in particular, informed them about the overturning plans of some of Papen's conservative employees. These assumptions are supported by later research by the historian Lutz Hachmeister . Regardless of whether these suspicions were correct, Bochow was able to evade arrest by the SS during the occupation of the Vice Chancellery on June 30, 1934 because he was allowed to leave the building as a visitor.

Activity in Vienna (1934 to 1938)

In the following three and a half years - from August 1934 to spring 1938 - Bochow worked as a journalist in the Vienna office of the British daily newspaper Daily Express . At the same time he took on the job of a press agent as a freelancer for his former colleague Wilhelm von Ketteler , a former close associate of von Papens in the vice chancellery, who was now an attaché at the German embassy in Vienna, also working under Franz von Papen, who was at the time held the post of German ambassador to Austria. After the events of June 30, Papen resigned as Vice Chancellor and was sent to the Alpine state by Adolf Hitler as a diplomat. Bochow apparently retained the function of spy for the SD. Through him, the SD was informed of Ketteler's ongoing opposition to the Nazi system and Reinhard Heydrich is said to have learned from him that Ketteler tried to counteract German policy on Austria from his supposedly secure position at the Vienna embassy, ​​and most recently even plans to assassinate Hitler prepared. When Ketteler was murdered immediately after the annexation of Austria to the National Socialist German Reich in March 1938, the more closely involved contemporary witnesses suspected almost immediately that Bochow must have been the one who had betrayed Ketteler to the SD.

Activity in Berlin

After Ketteler's murder, Bochow got a job at the German News Office in Berlin , which was closely connected with the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda . In addition, he should become an employee of the Reich Security Main Office . Soon after the end of the Nazi regime, he was arrested on June 12, 1945 at the police station in Berlin-Zehlendorf and finally sentenced to death by a Soviet military tribunal. He was then held briefly in special prison No. 7 in Frankfurt an der Oder and probably transferred to Inta or Brest . According to Andreas Weigelt, the execution of the judgment is not guaranteed.

marriage and family

Bochow married Hansi Bochow-Blüthgen on April 6, 1926 in Leipzig

Works

  • Hansgeorg inherits a miracle . Ernst Oldenburg Verlag, Leipzig 1931 (4th edition).

literature

  • Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner , Andreas Weigelt: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944–1947). A historical-biographical study. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-36968-5 .
  • Rainer Orth: "Walter Bochow", in: The official seat of the opposition , Cologne 2016, pp. 230–238 (life 1889 to 1933) and passim, v. a. Appendix I (life from 1934 to 1946).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Registry office Leipzig I: Birth register for the year 1889, birth certificate No. 3756/1889.
  2. ^ Rainer Orth: The SD man Johannes Schmidt. The murderer of Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher? Tectum, Münster 2012, p. 166.
  3. ↑ Who is who? , 1958, p. 103.
  4. ↑ Kürschner's German Literature Calendar , 1932, p. 124.
  5. ↑ Sefton Delmer : The Germans and I. Revised special edition. Nannen-Verlag, Hamburg 1963, p. 170
  6. ^ Sefton Delmer: An Autobiography. Volume 1: Trail Sinister. Secker & Warburg, London 1961, p. 231
  7. ↑ Heinz Höhne : Mordsache Röhm. Rowohlt, Berlin 1984.
  8. ↑ Lutz Hachmeister: The enemy researcher. The career of SS leader Franz Alfred Six. Beck, Munich 1998.
  9. ↑ The new world stage. Weekly for politics, art, economy. Vol. 30, No. 27-52, 1934, ZDB -ID 202668-5 , p. 986.
  10. ^ Fritz Günther von Tschirschky : Memories of a high traitor. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1972, p. 241.
  11. ↑ Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner , Andreas Weigelt: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944-1947). A historical-biographical study. , Göttingen 2015, short biographies: p. 56
  12. ↑ Standesam Leipzig marriage certificate No. 386/1926.
personal data
SURNAME Bochow, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and agent
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH 20th century
Place of death Inta